The breakdown characterization of both out- and in-plane electrostatically actuated RF-MEMS switches with air-gaps from 1.0 to 6.7 µm was studied. The emitted electromagnetic field during the testing was also analyzed, in order to have a certain indication of the air-breakdown occurrence. Furthermore, we studied the effect of TLP and HBM events on the dielectric charging of tested MEMS, furnishing the experimental evidence that ESD events should not be responsible of this important reliability problem for MEMS, and that ESD tester parasitic elements can seriously influence the MEMS electromechanical behavior characterization. Finally, a simple, but effective, varistor based protection structure was explored.
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